


Mountain Meadow

by GretchenSinister



Category: Doctor Who, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 13:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18700147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "I just want Eleven to meet Jack.Whether Jack actually becomes a full-time companion, only joins on the occasional adventure or simply keeps running into him while he’s saving the earts from aliens is up to you, my dear potential writer!You can make it Eleven/Jack if you want, but I’d prefer gen.Bonus: The Doctor and Sandy are old friends, but since Sandy’s mostly active at nighttime, he never joined the Doctor on one of his adventures."So, this turned out to be Jack talking with Bunny about what exactly are the limits on the weird stuff he’s supposed to watch out for, now that he’s a Guardian. Because he’s seen this one guy…or maybe several guys…around for a while. Eldritch Pitch and Sandy mentioned, but this is definitely not canon in the Apotheosis AU.





	Mountain Meadow

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 7/3/2015.

“Hey, Bunny,” Jack says as they’re resting from an ultimately friendly snow vs. flowers fight somewhere in the mountains of North America, “as Guardians, do we have to look into all the weird stuff we see, or just stuff that obviously, directly affects kids?”  
  
Bunny tilts his head and looks at Jack. “I’d say that’s something we evaluate for each situation. If you’re asking about something that has to do with the Old Men, though, I’ve got to advise you to stay out of it until it’s absolutely impossible to ignore.”  
  
Jack laughs. “Don’t worry, the days of my initiation taught me that well enough. No, the stuff that I’ve noticed isn’t quite on their level. It’s mostly centered in Britain, and it’s all got to do with…well…one guy. Or maybe several guys. Eleven of them, I think it is, now. He’s—or they’ve—been around for at least two hundred and fifty years now, and I don’t know how mortal he—or they—is—or are—because I don’t know if it’s one guy or not, but the same kind of trouble tends to follow him. But he’s definitely not a spirit.”  
  
“Oh, that guy,” Bunny says. He scratches behind his ear. “Yeah—it’s just one guy. And you say you’ve seen him eleven different ways now? He must be living dangerously.”  
  
“If you say so,” Jack says. “All the changes I’ve noticed have happened over the past fifty years or so.”  
  
Bunny shakes his head. “He’s going to run out of time, doing that. But, anyway, he’s actually an alien, and one of the reasons he’s here is that he’s the last of his kind.”  
  
Jack looks puzzled. “You mean, like the Hero, that new spirit on this continent? But he—he’s really a spirit, just made out of belief—”  
  
“Yeah, and that makes him a lot easier to talk to.” Bunny smiles. “It’s a popular background.” His expression turns sober. “My secondary memories give me a past like that—yours might, too. You can always talk to me about that, you know. The Old Men might actually be able to explain it, but they won’t know how it feels.”  
  
“Oh—okay. I’m going to…think about that later.” Jack pauses. “But, why do we have this flesh and blood alien running around in Britain? Should we worry about that? I mean, I’ve been around once or twice when it seemed like the world was about to end and this guy saved it in the nick of time but if he hadn’t been here in the first place would all that trouble have even happened? But no one else noticed? It’s like it was somehow contained in everyone’s secondary memories? But regular people don’t have secondary memories! How? Why? I’m, you know, kind of concerned now that I have responsibilities as a Guardian…and also I just want to know what’s going on.”  
  
“You could go talk to the guy,” Bunny says. “He goes by the Doctor.”  
  
“Will he recognize me for what I am?”  
  
“Huh.” Bunny raises his eyebrows. “Good point. Probably not. But I mean—he won’t be dangerous to you, even if he tries.”  
  
“Good—I guess.” Jack settles back against a snowbank. “He probably wouldn’t get my questions, anyway. But still. Why an alien? Why Britain? Why do so many people not notice?”  
  
“My money is that he’s part of a bet between the Old Men that they’ve forgotten or modified the terms of,” Bunny says. “Mostly because the Doctor’s involved in time travel, and the Old Men are the only ones I’ve ever met that are even slightly practically familiar with that—if you can call anything they do practical. As for why they would have done it—why not? It gives beings like us something to wonder about. That’s probably important. Or maybe it isn’t. But at least it’s not boring.”  
  
Jack nods. “Yeah, I suppose some inexplicable things are good,” he says. He stands and stretches. “Race you to the next mountain?”  
  
They leave just before a group of hikers arrive to find a meadow astoundingly swirled between deep snow drifts and dense patches of the most brilliant flowers they’ve ever seen. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> sylphidine reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> I like this quiet, thoughtful conversation between these two.


End file.
